In this episode of Placecast, Nicola Headlam speaks with Abigail Taylor (City-REDI) and Jeff Matsu (City-REDI Fellow) about their groundbreaking comparative research on governance and fiscal devolution between Japan and the UK. Their work, supported by international partnerships and field visits to Osaka and Tokyo, offers fresh insights into how decentralisation and collaborative leadership can shape better outcomes for regions.
Placecast is a Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub production based at City-REDI, University of Birmingham. It is essential listening for those keen to explore the ins and outs of knowledge mobilisation for influence in central and local government, based on the view that it’s only through animating the power of place-based leadership that the wicked problems of 2026 can become more manageable.
Jeffrey Matsu is a former Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and a Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is a City-REDI Fellow and is also on the Delivery Team for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub.
With extensive experience in connecting policy with practice through evidence-based research, he works with partner governments, accountancy bodies and the public sector around the world to advance public finance and support better public services.
Jeff holds degrees in economics from the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University.
Dr Abigail Taylor is a Research Fellow at City-REDI, University of Birmingham, and leads on several themes for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub. Abigail’s research interests lie in regional and local labour markets, skills, institutions, employment support policy and place. Sub-interests include future skills mismatches, lifelong learning, funding flows and governance structures. Abigail has extensive experience in comparative international research.
Dr Nicola Headlam has over 20 years of experience working across all aspects of the multi-helix innovation system, including central and local government, civil society and campaigning, academic research and knowledge mobilisation, and industry. Along the way, she has honed her expertise in urban and regional subnational economic development, the roles of government in shaping place, and in utilising data and evidence for transformation.
In 2024, she became a freelance economic advisor on the role of leadership and partnerships, urban and living lab forms for research, future of cities and foresighting methods, urban transformations, place-branding and urban regeneration and the spatial consequences of public policy.
Find out more about the LPIP Hub.